Story Behind the Song: Lee Brice, ‘Boy’

Lee Brice didn't write his single "Boy," but he could have. The song, the debut single from Brice's eponymous fourth studio album, was written by Nicolle Galyon and Jon Nite, but when Brice, who is a father to sons Takoda and Ryker (as well as a daughter, Trulee), heard the song, he knew he wanted to make it his own.

Below, Brice explains why "Boy" was a perfect song for him.

I was playing it on the road, and we hadn’t quite put it out on the radio yet, but I knew we were going to. But as I sang it every night, people would hold up pictures of their boys, and all I could think about was, so many people that I meet every day have such tragic things happen to their young children, and all I would ever think about are my two healthy -- completely healthy -- boys, and all the other stuff in life that you can easily get angry or frustrated or this or that or complain about. The moment you think about the fact that you have healthy boys, healthy children, and there are so many people who go through so much stuff, it just kind of overwhelms me with joy. I would break down onstage.

The song is great, but that song reminded me of my daddy. And now, as a daddy, I realize how hard he was trying to teach me things that he wanted me to learn for me, not for him. He wanted me to learn these things so that I could be ahead in life, so that I could be ahead in life in joy, and so I could be ahead in life at not having to work so hard and learn all these lessons the hard way. So now I’m trying to teach my kids, and they aren’t listening to me. They don’t know that I’m trying to help -- [that] it’s all about them. So the connection between my daddy and myself, and now myself and my sons, that is what makes “Boy,” the song, so special ... I have yet to get through it onstage without breaking down.